Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Surprise: Liberty Counsel/Mat Staver lose again

Monday, attorneys from Liberty Counsel argued before the Alabama Court of the Judiciary that “baseless” charges against Roy Moore should be dismissed. The Court ruled—unanimously—that Moore must stand trial for his ethics violation. Moore, citing a conflict between the Supreme Court of the United States ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges and an Alabama Supreme Court decision, claimed in his January 6, 2016 order that probate judges had a “ministerial duty not to issue any marriage license contrary to the Alabama Sanctity of Marriage Amendment or the Alabama Marriage Protection Act” until further notice was provided for by state Supreme Court precedent.

Moore thought that he could get away with this nonsense because, after all, it's Alabama. Yet even he, as dimwitted a lawyer as he is, knows that the Supreme Court of the U.S. supersedes any action by a state court. It's been that way since Marbury v. Madison over 200 years ago. It is a precedence that is universally respected. Well, almost.